2 Palestinians shot dead near Ramallah after alleged attacks

Dec. 4, 2015 2:07 P.M. (Updated: Dec. 7, 2015 10:53 A.M.)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinians were shot dead near Ramallah on Friday after separate alleged attacks targeting Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank, Israel's army and Palestinian officials said.

A Palestinian was shot and killed near the illegal Ofra settlement north of Ramallah after ramming his car into a group of Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli army.

The army confirmed that two soldiers were injured in the incident. Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said that paramedics treated two Israelis around 20 years of age who sustained minor injuries.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the Palestinian as Anas Bassam Hammad.

An hour earlier, a Palestinian man was shot and killed after reportedly stabbing an Israeli soldier near the Ramallah-area village of Abud, Palestinian officials said.

The ministry told Ma'an he died from gunshot wounds to the neck and arm after being shot by Israeli military forces near Abud, which is located adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish.

Witnesses told Ma’an following the attack that Barghouthi was a US citizen who had recently arrived back from the US to get married, after getting engaged five months previously.

Barghouthi was reportedly walking home from his fiance’s house at the time that he was shot, according to witnesses who said that a car dropped him off near his village, where clashes were taking place at the time.

The witnesses told Ma’an that Barghouthi had tried to walk home “with his arms raised” when two soldiers jumped from nearby olive groves and "opened fire before planting a knife beside his body."

Barghouthi’s body was taken from the scene in a Palestinian ambulance after demonstrators in the area at the time then threw rocks at the military forces who attempted to follow the ambulance, opening fire, witnesses said.

Barghouthi was taken to Yasser Arafat Hospital in Salfit.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a “stabbing attack took place during a security check" near Abud, when “the assailant exited his vehicle and stabbed a soldier in the neck.”

The spokesperson said that that clashes were occurring nearby at the time of the attack, but could not confirm if the security check was carried out in relation to the clashes.

The latest incidents came after two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead overnight in Hebron after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier in Tel Rumeida.